Our advance Chap Goh Meh dinner

Chap Goh Meh marks the last day of Chinese New Year and traditionally sees the whole family sitting down for dinner. Unfortunately, none of our family members are in one place this year so my grandma did an early one with all of my favorite dishes.

I’ve always loved fish cooked with soy sauce. I can’t remember the name of this fish but it’s kinda like empurau in texture.

Century eggs are one of my favorite condiments…however, I only tend to eat it in Sibu for some reason. I love the rich egg yolk and it’s an instant appetizer for me. :)

This is hands down my favorite vegetable. It’s called chai bo and cooked with a bit of sugar so the taste is slightly sweet. It’s one of the rare foods that hits the umami G-spot and I can eat a spoonful with every bite. I love this and I could never find it anywhere else except at my grandma’s. It’s her specialty. <3

Pork leg with chicken feet. This unique combination turned up at the table during the Chinese New Year reunion dinner with fatt choy (black moss) and I was instantly hooked! I love the texture of pork leg – the chunky meat and exquisitely sinful layer of fat is divine. The pairing with chicken feet is quite ingenious – it’s the brainchild of one of my aunties. It takes hours to cook so everything comes out tender and juicy.

I ate so much I nearly burst but I’m so hungry right now it makes me want to repeat this gastronomic feat again. Home cooked meals with your family is the best – I only get to experience this once a year.

teck: LOL “I can see there is “Milian” and “Kangkong”” sounded like kongkong (grandpa) and his new wife. hehe!

By the way, Bin, that pork leg and chicken leg dish looked kind of new to me, how come i don’t know about that dish at all? Is it one of the Heng Hua’s special cuisines? do they fight in the pot? hehe!

Teck: Yup! That’s our local specialty – milian the wild fern. I like eating it too, prefer it to be a bit crunchy instead of soggy.
I’ve never ate pork leg and chicken feet in a dish either until now. It’s pretty good. :)

jg: Hello Jane! Yeah, I’ve never had it until this CNY – one of my aunties cooked it with black moss (fatt choy) during CNY and I loved it. I guess they ran out of black moss for Chap Goh Meh but it’s still really good. The chicken feet gets very tender and falls off the bone. It’s soggy and the taste goess very well with the pork. :)
I don’t know if it’s a Heng Hua dish…but this method of preparing chai bo is. Foochows usually deep fry it, which makes it taste horrible, in my opinion. I prefer it to be done with a bit of sugar. :)